Journal of a Vampire
by vodka on fire
Summary: Sadly this site does not have a Dracula Category under books... still this is meant to be a journal written by a vampire it is a prelude to another story I am writing focusing on the next Great War


Journal of a Vampire

Sat (well it Sun now I guess) 24th, 2005

Christmas, it used to be a happy time, now I just shudder as I remember my long dead family and playmates.

I am writing this diary as a memoire, I am about to embark on a very dangerous endeavour and if I fail I want something to survive me. I've seen much death in my time, and truly immortality cannot be obtained by the bite, nor the sword, but by the pen.

Before I delve into the complicated social and political, features of the vampire world, I must state that this is not some attempt to drive fear into the reader, nor to gain acceptance for my kind. Rather this is an honest testimonial of my life 9but mostly my death) and my interactions with the world.

First let us start with how it was I was introduced to the world of vampires

The year was 1898 and the industrial revolution was starting to leave a mark over most of England... oh no wait that's when I got my sun block additives, sorry...

The year was 1798 and I was a happy ten year old child in a little country most people have never heard of called Transylvania (now a province of Romania), summer was just ending and the harvest was coming.

On one particularly brisk evening I was headed home to my house which was towards the edge of the village, I remember thinking how stupid my parents were being, not allowing me to stay out after dark, what could happen (thoughts I deeply regret, for such are not the thoughts one wants to remember thinking before they see what I was about to), and yet here I was walking home in broad daylight, well... not broad per say, but it was definitely still light, well... not light per say, but one could tell what was coming up in the road. If, that is, you had walked it enough time to do so with your eyes closed, which I had so I considered it fair that I call it light.

In any case as I neared my house I noticed that there was a strange red shade to the light in the window. As I crept nearer to the door, I saw a most horrific site, I saw the shadow of a figure standing above my parents, he (for the figure was a man) was definitely of society, and his apparel denoted him of a high rank in said society. At first I thought he was a lord come to collect dues on the farm, or worse take it away, but then I heard what my parents were begging him about, it was about me. The figure wanted to "turn me", and as I had no idea what this mean at the time my confusion with this event was infinite. After a while the lord seemed to become enraged with my parents, and flicking his hand in their general direction they started to cringe in pain, I could hear their screams and could watch no longer, I rolled up in a ball outside the window and started crying. Why was this man doing this to my parents, why?

Suddenly there was silence… then I heard a slow whispered voice:  
_"You are pathetic, why do you torment these bottom feeders, they are nothing to you. Are you so weak you must resort to this for your amusement?"_  
For the first time the lord's voice seemed jittery and weak, _"I'm sorry if I have offended thee sir, I did not know these peasants were under your protection, I shall leave and ne'er here return."  
"They aren't Nigel, but it disgusts me when I see low level scum forgetting their place. You have no right to even step foot within this region, never mind harassing its inhabitants. Leave now and perhaps I'll consider letting you live a while longer."_

"_Ye-eee-ss sir,"_ the man was clearly furious about being made to leave so quickly but his fear was far greater. I expected to hear the door open but nothing happened, after a while I worked up the courage to look inside the window but just as I raised my head a hand grabbed me from behind and another clapped over my mouth stifling my screams. In a second it was over, my captor had turned my neck sideways, and to my incredible dismay bit me.

I had never believed the stories I heard from the other children about such creatures, devil things, with white sparkling teeth that craved to be painted red, creatures that sucked your blood, VAMPIRES.

The pain was incredible, my blood boiled inside me I tried to scream but no words came out. I could feel the blood leaving my body and only the pain kept me from fainting. Suddenly I was released and fell to the ground, blood soaking the grass. My captor screamed as if he was mad and simply disappeared from under me. I lay on the ground for what seemed an eternity, my saviour, the man with the whispered voice, was speaking to my parents, I could hear their voices in the house, but could not make out what they were saying, all I could hear were the cries of my mother. Was I going to die? Would I turn into one of those hideous creatures? Would they kill me before that could happen? What was going on? Were all questions you would expect to be floating around my mind. But at this point all I could think about was the blinding pain, it seemed unnatural that I hadn't died yet, a cruel twist of fate. Suddenly the man came out of the house picked me up from the ground and carried me to his carriage, as my head rolled back in his head I felt the greatest pain imaginable. It came from seeing my parents watch from the door as I was carried to the carriage; though it seemed ridiculous I was sure I would never see them again. _This man picked me up, he's to take me to an apothecary, they'll give me some drug or drought and I'll be fine. Why do they look so worried? _I tried to reassure them but I could not speak.

The world was getting slightly unfocused and I noticed a long trail of blood pouring behind me, I had lost much blood. There was no apothecary in the world who could fix this, no I was dead. The irony of my thoughts was grasped only in my later years, after I had learned more about what happened that night.

I passed out as soon as I got into the carriage, though I have a vague memory of the gentlemen heeding me to not scream, and that what he was about to do was for my own good. He bit me, but instead of sucking further blood from my body he gave me death, and with it came eternal life.

It was a long time before I understood why my new master would have done this. He was a Full-Blood, and as such he had no regard for humans, but he had pride and he saw my attack as a failure on his part, for although he was not responsible for me in any way, he had felt disgust at my attacker for attacking a child. My master was a man of honour and though he despised humans for their frailty he would never stoop so low as to attack a child.

Under his tutelage I learned about the various echelons of the vampirical social landscape and was given to understand my place though far below his own, was a good deal above many of the vampires out there, I would learn later the true meaning of this statement. Still I felt no resent for this, as I owed him my death.

He also taught me how to use my abilities, though he left much out, presumably as the discovery was as important as the skill itself. He taught me how to control my hunger and instructed me on the rules of the Covenant. The Elders had set out the Covenant three centuries back so as to civilize and unify the vampires. It was a very effective tool as it had two major accomplishments, firstly it kept the society hidden and away from prying eyes, and more importantly it unified us into a nation, a nation with no borders and no enemies or allies. The punishments were harsh and swift and few deigned to step outside the bounds. Through this tutelage I realised why my master had killed the man who bit me all that time ago, he had broken the covenant.

When I reached the age of adulthood, my master decided it was time for me to leave and so I dutifully left the castle to find my own home. He told me to come to the castle at a time of need, but he encouraged me to rely on none but myself. He told me that this was not the true home of the vampires; he said I was to young still for that place. I obeyed his wishes and began making arrangements for my travels. I flirted with the idea of visiting my parents, but quickly decided that could not happen. It was not that I was afraid of biting them, no my master had taught me well and I was in full control of my urges, but it wasn't right; I was dead and they alive, we were no longer the same species.

I was now on my own and for the first time ever I was truly feeling the fact that I was different, while I lived with my master, I was like him, but now I was alone, and would be so for quite some time. The last thing my master said before wishing me luck was that he and he alone was my master, I was to bow only to those he bowed to (and in my experience those were precious few). His advice was two-fold, firstly he hoped it would instil in me a sense of pride that I may carry on my journey. And secondly, it was meant as a reminder that if he called I was to answer and that I was still his.

This journey of self discovery was traditional for vampires, they were sent out to make their own way in the world. No fear greeted me as I left the gates of my home for the past eight years, only excitement and a need for adventure. Both these emotions I would later realise are reserved to the young and foolish.

(Hopefully to be continued)

2005-04-24

Ok now back to the main topic of the vamp articles, in order to understand a vampire you must be able to understand how they function both on a biological level and on a social level

First on the biological level, In Order to be able to define a vampire biologically we must start with how one becomes a vampire. There are 3 main ways for this to occur:

Vampire's can be born vampires (which would require them to have both parents be Vamps) making them Full-Bloods. As such they posses far greater powers for their blood contains a higher concentration of the V-microbe (the agent responsible for creating vampires), this comes down to how ma generations of vampires are in their heritage and of course the whims of mother nature as to which genes she passes on from the parents. It is a common misconception that the children of vampires are born dead, this is not true, simply those vampire's who are born vampires will have only a slight part of their powers and will go trough life almost as normal children would, but for a occasional craving for blood caused by the deficiencies their DNA. They will continue to live normal lives until they are first killed at which point they will stop ageing at a human rate and their powers will begin to truly surface. Vampires that are born of a vampire and a human parent are generally frowned upon because their human blood makes them weak and it is also disconcerting for vampires o imagine one of their rank living with a pathetic human. These are called Half-Bloods. The major cause of these opinions is the aristocratic roots of the vampirian society but this will be discussed further in the section on sociology.

Vampire's can also result from when a vampire "turns" a human into a vampire. It is important to note that while the turning process cannot occur without the subject being bitten it is not in any way necessary for the subject to be turned if bitten. In fact, the majority of upper echelon Vampires do not turn their victims out of disgust for them, they merely feed of their blood and leave them for dead. In order to "turn" a human the vamp must inject them with the v-microbe. This is a microbe that travels through the blood stream and attacks cells; it multiplies almost endlessly but also dies of extremely rapidly taking with it the blood cells found in the host. The microbe infuses the host with incredible power and allows them to do things they would never before had been able to doe, however, it also makes their skin extremely sensitive to sunlight and causes the host a allergy to silver. Though this allergy is quite severe it has been greatly exaggerated over the years, silver bullets are not enough to kill a vampire but if a large enough dose was to get into a vamps system it would be fatal. These vampires are called Bleed-neck's and are far weaker than Full-Bloods or Half-Bloods. They are treated with little or no respect by those born as vampire's and are the subjects of the vampire who bites them until either they are set free or their master dies.

The last and rarest way of becoming a vampire is having the v-microbe evolve within your body. This makes he vampire very powerful because they can control the production of v-microbes boosting their powers or lessening their weaknesses depending on the situation. Also there is evidence to show that there may be other powers that can be created if one is able to assimilate the microbe on ones own accord, however, since the only certain case of this type of creation is the famed Dracula, intense study into the matter is restricted. One thing is obvious though, and namely that Dracula is by far the strongest of the vampires and so it is reasonable to believe that this is due to his ability to control the concentration of v-microbes in his body.


End file.
